NOT VIBRANT ENOUGH? US teachers nowhere as diverse as their students. Oh no, can’t have that.

Almost half the students attending public schools are minorities, yet fewer than 1 in 5 of their teachers is nonwhite.

New studies from the Center for American Progress and the National Education Association are calling attention to this “diversity gap” at elementary and secondary schools in the United States. The groups want more to be done to help teachers more accurately mirror the students in their classrooms.

So I’m sure that these groups are practically tripping over themselves to reduce the percentage of teachers that are female to more accurately reflect the sex ratio of students, then. After all, the ratio of female primary school teachers to male is over six to one.

It becomes easier for students to believe “when they can look and see someone who looks just like them, that they can relate to,” said Gilbert, a member of the NEA’s executive committee.

Sounds like an argument for homeschooling.

“Nothing can help motivate our students more than to see success standing right in front of them.”

Success for minorities = working a government job.

But really, doesn’t all of this just mean that white students should have white teachers and vibrant students should have vibrant teachers? Not quite:

More than minority students would benefit from a more diverse teacher corps, said Ulrich Boser, the author of the center’s report.

“Even in a place like North Dakota, where the students aren’t particularly diverse relative to the rest of the country, it’s important for our social fabric, for our sense as a nation, that students are engaging with people who think, talk and act differently than them but can also be just as effective at raising student achievement in the classroom,” he said.

So, white teachers for vibrant students is bad, but vibrant teachers for white students is good.

Note the identification of race with how people “think, talk, and act.” This is usually called racism. Now it’s called encouraging diversity. Race is only a difference in physical features, except when it isn’t.

As for having teachers who think differently, I’m sure that the Center for American Progress and the National Education Association will make known their opposition to the suspension of a teacher suspected of being a neo-Nazi. Isn’t it “important for our social fabric, for our sense as a nation, that students are engaging with” him?